TIVO Up 5% on FYQ2 EPS Beat, Higher Q3 Rev View

By Tiernan Ray

Shares of television time-warping technology maker TiVo (TIVO) are up 45 cents, or almost 5%, at $9.81 after the company this afternoon reportedfiscal Q2 revenue below analysts’ expectations, but beat on the bottom line, and projected Q3 revenue higher than consensus.

Revenue in the three months ended in July rose 9%, year over year, to $54.1 million, yielding a net loss of 23 cents.

Analysts had been modeling $54.5 million and a 25-cent loss per share.

Total subscriptions rose by 230,000, or 41%, from the prior-year period, the company said, giving the company a total of 2.72 million subscribers at the end of the quarter, up from 1.93 million a year earlier. All of the new subscriptions came from TiVo’s cable distributors, and TiVo’s churn rate dropped from 1.9% to 1.6%.

Acquisition costs rose to $6.97 million from $6.32 million, mainly because of higher hardware costs. Average revenue from each of TiVo’s “owned” subscriptions, or “ARPU,” rose to $8.42 from $8.31, while the revenue from each subscription owned by cable partners declined from $1.94 to $1.15.

For the current quarter, the company sees revenue in a range of $57 million to $59 million, which is better than the $56.44 million the Street has been modeling.

TiVo sees a net loss of $27 million to $29 million this quarter, which it attributed to ongoing high litigation costs in its legal dispute with Verizon Communications (VZ).

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.